


a certain kind of romance

by orphan_account



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: First Kiss, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, a bit of angst bc who do you think i am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-12 20:30:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7121476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a show, a van, a blanket, a carpet of stars. love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a certain kind of romance

**Author's Note:**

> i guess taylor graduated or something  
> hap graduation  
> congratulation
> 
> (jk i know you graduated im endlessly proud of you ive been working on this for fucking weeks and it kind of sucks and it's like five days late and it's immeasurable to the amount of love i hold for you in my heart lmao thanks for bein my best friend for the past six months im glad you asked me for blowjob advice loser)

they’ve been on the road for six days.

six days feels like an eternity when you’re a band of two and playing to crowds of tens, maybe fifteen if they hit it out lucky; there was one time they managed to get twenty-one, and josh had never seen tyler happier. he’d never seen tyler more energetic, either, and there was one point where he’d managed to scale the stage and it was a miracle josh didn’t drop his drumsticks _once_ , he was so scared; tyler was so high up, screaming lyrics to a song josh had heard maybe three hundred times over but could never remember, could barely even hear his own drumbeat over his heart pounding in his ears. he cried in the van that night out of sheer happiness, because maybe, just maybe, they were going to make it.

six days feels like an eternity, especially at night when they’re so full of energy after a show they both can’t sleep and spend hours prattling on together about nothing and everything all at once. they’re both still soaked in sweat as they lie on the twin mattress they managed to shove in the back of the van, huddled close together with eyes glinting in the darkness as they laugh at each other’s lame attempts at jokes; they couldn’t scrape together enough money to afford a hotel room, which meant no showers after a long show. they both kind of reek but it’s just another bout of fun to poke at each other (“you smell worse than _i_ do”, “no _way_ , ty, you smell _way_ worse!”).

a lull happens in the seemingly never-ending conversations somewhere around two-thirty am; the show had ended at nine, give or take half an hour because tyler can never remember times to save his fucking life, and it’d taken nearly an hour for them to pack up the set, another hour to drive to the middle of nowhere to park by a nearby farm to catch some sleep. except they never do end up sleeping until it’s like four in the morning, because tyler’s mind works like a hive and josh is never quite tired enough to tell him to shut up and close his eyes for once. instead, he listens and responds for hours and it works like that until tyler can’t keep his eyes open and he ends up falling asleep mid-sentence (and sometimes, he wakes up curled against josh’s side, and neither of them ever mind).

josh’s eyes are closed, his breathing steadying out slowly as he’s dragged under, only to be startled awake moments later by tyler’s voice breaking the serenity.

“josh,” he murmurs, and although it’s soft, it effectively shakes josh awake; he huffs, rolling onto his side from his back to face tyler as he blinks bleary eyes to look at him through the darkness. “josh, we should stargaze.”

it’s out of the blue, and it gives josh a bit of pause; he blinks, giving his vision a moment to clear as he considers. it’d be a weird request, coming from any other person on the planet, but it’s tyler, it’s his best friend. he knows him almost as well as he knows himself, and it isn’t odd in the slightest; he’s always been the type of person to come up with spontaneous ideas to do, adventures to tackle, even when it’s well past the middle of the night and they’re virtually in the middle of nowhere parked on the edge of some stranger’s field.

but, he cracks a dim smile, and he says, “okay.”

he’d go along with any inane, terrible, awful idea tyler had, provided he got to see the smile on his face. plus, he hasn’t stargazed in – as long as he can remember. so he gets up from his worn-down mattress and he helps tyler open up the back of the van, and they both pull the blanket from off the bed to lay down on the ground.

“i hope whoever owns this doesn’t mind,” josh mumbles drowsily as he spreads the blanket across the grass; tyler huffs a laugh, straightening his back out and putting his hands on his hips.

he reminds josh of a superhero, standing like that; something like captain america, or superman, or something else that’s ridiculous – men in tights, and he holds back on a laugh. tyler in tights. he wants to voice this, but it’s dumb, so he bites his lip instead and flops down on the ground with an audible ‘oof’, breath knocked successfully from his lungs.

tyler settles on his back next to him. he sighs softly, and josh doesn’t even bother looking at the stars; he’s not here for stars, or galaxies or cosmos or supernovas or planets. he’s here for tyler and tyler alone; he’s known from the moment he set foot on the ground there wouldn’t be a moment he wasted on stars, as much as he loves them in his heart of hearts. tyler’s more breathtaking than any constellation josh has ever seen, with all his soft, rounded features and brown eyes as deep as the mediterranean ocean and sweet little pixie nose (and the tiny freckles littering his cheeks that he could spend days counting and the way his jawline manages to be both soft and sharp all at once and his crooked-toothed smile and the way it crinkles his entire face when he’s happy enough and the list of _things josh dun loves about tyler joseph_ could stretch for miles).

josh’s heart pounds as he looks at him; not out of fear of being caught, because there’s been so many times tyler’s looked over at him staring and while he used to panic he’s become accustomed to the special way tyler smiles when he catches him. no, not out of fear, but out of love. simple, pure, innocent, unadulterated love – and he wonders, as his eyes trail languidly over the softened features of his face illuminated by the glow of the stars, how long has he loved tyler joseph? it feels like an eternity. they’ve known each other for maybe a year, and it feels like his love for him started from the day he met him; and maybe it did. maybe it did, because maybe he fell in love the moment they made eye contact.

he never used to believe in love at first sight, and truthfully, he still doesn’t; but tyler makes him _want_ to believe that they fell in love at first sight, and maybe the click (like fireworks, like wet-hot light) he felt between them when they first met eyes was something _akin_ to love at first sight. it feels like they’re soulmates, in a sense; and no matter how much josh craves him romantically, every part and individual bit of him from soul to mind to body, he knows that tyler probably wouldn’t ever feel the same. it used to break his heart, if he’s truthful, knowing that he’d never spend his life loving tyler in the way he wanted to love him just because tyler didn’t reciprocate his feelings. but he’s grown used to it, and while he still sometimes fantasizes a life together getting married and owning a house and being dreadfully in love even at eighty years old, he knows tyler’s heart belongs elsewhere. and that’s okay.

that doesn’t stop him from looking at him when his eyes are cast at the stars above on another one of his crazy nightly whims; it’s an adventure that never ends, being by his side, like a roller coaster that josh can’t get off of but he knows deeply that he’d never climb off even if he had the opportunity to. he loves tyler too much to disembark from their adventure, whether it stretches for only weeks more or years after (he hopes desperately for years, never wants to part from his side). nothing stops him from admiring his beauty, glowing softly under the moonlight, even if his mind reminds him that he’ll never have him in the way he wants him, maybe even needs him. it’s bittersweet, but he pushes away the negativity, lets himself be desperately, helplessly in love in a way that makes him almost sick.

tyler’s head turns at the same time josh is admiring him, and his eyes widen, startled at being caught, but they don’t move from his face, instead making contact with tyler’s; but instead of reprimanding him, as josh always expects and is always delightfully proven wrong, tyler’s lips curve into a full smile that touches his eyes in the gentlest of ways possible. “aren’t they beautiful?” he breathes, soft, and he’s so close that his breath tickles josh’s face, and he can’t help but grin.

“they’re beautiful,” he affirms, but he’s not entirely sure it’s the stars he’s talking about.

his eyes twinkle with a mischevious light, and he rolls his neck, eyes still locked on josh’s; he fumbles around with his hand, seemingly reaching for something, and josh can’t help but involuntarily gasp as tyler’s fingers brush across his knuckles. it’s unexpected but wonderful all at once, causing his stomach to do all sorts of nauseating flips as tyler’s fingers interlock through his, resting their intertwined hands on the blanket between them.

“you know,” tyler whispers, as if he’s afraid to break the silence, squeezing josh’s hand; josh smiles so wide it threatens to split his face right in half, so bright it might just outrival the sun. “i’ve never been kissed before.”

josh takes it as another one of tyler’s traits. he’s never quiet for too long, with his mind always buzzing like a bee’s hive; a wasp’s hive, probably, in the way it could be peaceful if undisturbed but dangerously treacherous if treaded too close to. he always has something to say, and josh simply takes it as something to say to fill the quiet lulls between their almost neverending conversations. he doesn’t know, and he’s quite surprised at the fact that tyler’s never been kissed – it’s a shock that someone so beautiful, so captivating, so _ethereal_ has never been kissed. his eyebrows furrow, and he shakes his head, and tyler beams at him.

“how about you?” he asks josh, and the corner of josh’s lip quirks up in a soft smile. he shakes his head, licking his lips because he feels nervous for reasons he can’t pinpoint; butterflies explode in his stomach as tyler’s thumb runs softly over his knuckles, and his eyes are so warm when he looks into them, so deep, so inviting. he wants to be tyler’s first kiss, he realizes like a ton of bricks hitting him; he wants to be his first kiss, but it’s so unlikely that it’ll ever happen that it feels as if his heart might break from disappointment. tyler doesn’t sense his hesitation, instead squeezes his hand and pries further, “well, do you want to be?”

“yeah, of course,” josh replies, eyebrows furrowing in confusion; he’s unsure of what tyler’s insinuating, only aware of the fact that tyler’s still holding his hand and the fact that he really, _really_ wants to be his first kiss. “doesn’t everyone?”

he notices that tyler’s inched closer; his face is nearer than before, and josh can see the tiny freckles dotted over the bridge of his nose and cheeks if he squints just a little bit. they’re almost invisible, but josh knows, has spent to many hours looking at him in the darkness that he’s almost memorized his face. “maybe,” tyler sighs, shaking off josh’s hand; disappointment settles heavy in his gut like a stone, until tyler’s hand is tracing up his bicep and curving around the line of his jaw, holding him in place. he dips his chin so they’re eye level, moving his head closer until their noses brush, and josh fights the urge to close his eyes out of uncertainty, staring deeply into tyler’s own two dark pools.

confusion bursts in josh’s stomach like fireworks; tyler licks his lips, long eyelashes fluttering as he breathes, “can i kiss you?” he’s so close that all of his breath washes over josh’s lips, smelling of mint gum and toothpaste and something underlying the surface that josh can hardly put a finger on. he nods without hesitation, and tyler doesn’t smile, doesn’t breathe in, doesn’t do anything except press his lips to josh’s.

it’s chaste and hesitant; neither of them know what they’re doing, and a million things run through josh’s mind as tyler presses closer, hand softly curving around his jaw as he moves his lips against josh’s. he’s making a amateur’s attempt, although valiant, as his hand finds tyler’s hip and settles there.

it feels like an eternity, when it lasts for all of five seconds before tyler’s tugging back, inhaling sharply through his nose. “i’ve wanted to do that since i first met you,” he admits, and josh is so stunned at this revelation that he can’t do anything but breath heavily in confusion and overjoyed excitement.

he was tyler’s first kiss, it hits him over and over again, and he feels like he could die right then and die a happy man.

stunned, he clears his throat, eyes refocusing on tyler in front of him; he has a tiny, hesitant smile in place, eyes glittering with what could possibly be tears of happiness. “was that okay?” he asks, because he can never be quiet, even for ten seconds.

“perfect,” josh gasps, surging forward and locking his lips to tyler’s once more; this time, it’s faster, sloppier, and their teeth knock together. tyler laughs into his mouth, and josh finds himself giggling as they fall into a rhythm that barely constitutes as kissing. another five second kiss, before josh tugs back, gazing wide-eyed at tyler.

“perfect,” tyler agrees, bumping noses with josh. "kiss me again."

he complies. once, twice, they kiss, laughing against each other's lips and breathing in each other as if it's the last thing on earth they'll ever breathe again; and maybe it could be, and they both think that they'd be plenty happy with that.

perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr  
>  **joyseph** (main) // **brat-tyler** (joshler)


End file.
